Regular Newsweed consumers will have noticed, we’ve been on hiatus for the past few weeks. But since the news is not waiting for us, here is a recap of what has happened in the meantime on the planet Cannabis.
France
During our absence, France legalized cannabis. Oops, no. She actually came back in 1960 with a communication campaign from the Ministry of the Interior worthy of Nancy Reagan’s “Say no to drugs”, which claims to convince those who are convinced of the good work done by Place Beauvau. The campaign entitled “Behind the smoke”, laid by a Publicis lacking inspiration in what looks like an almost copy-paste of the name of the Netflix documentary “Behind our smoke screens”, intends to put on the back of cannabis the school failure, domestic accidents and insecurity. The budget, not communicated, was probably insufficient to add global warming, the sinking of the Amoco Cadiz and the leak of photos of Benjamin Griveaux.
The ANSM has announced the creation of a temporary scientific committee on the cultivation of medical cannabis in France: “The opinion of this CST should relate to the THC and CBD contents of plants or to the variety of plants used. It will also have to define the methods of traceability of the plants until the harvest of the flowers, the expected pharmaceutical forms of medicinal products based on cannabis, the pharmaceutical quality criteria as well as the necessary controls for the cultivation of medical cannabis in France ”. If the first meetings will take place in September 2021, the conclusions are already known since European standards prevail and the model adopted should be close to the German model which itself was based on the Canadian model, with EU-GMP standards. in addition.
Aurora / Etypharm delivered its first medical cannabis flowers to France in the form of 3 varieties:
- Aurora 20/1: LA Confidential strain
- Aurora 8/8: Equiposa variety
- Aurora 1/12: Cannatonic variety
The ANSM has not communicated on the number of patients having been delivered these flowers.
However, let’s be happy, DelleD, one of the most advanced French companies on the subject of medical cannabis (and whom we interviewed previously) obtained funding from BPI France and the Ile-de-France region after raising 3 million euros in 2020. It plans to launch a first clinical trial in 2022, which could easily exceed the number of patients included so far in the French experiment.
National Police cling to controlling CBD stores as if they were selling death. The new memo recognizes, however, that the many searches carried out since 2018 were undue in light of the Kanavape case law, French law and European law. Fortunately, shops can still be prosecuted for inciting the illicit use of narcotics, a very practical offense as it is vague.
https://twitter.com/collectifPCP/status/1421148131815829507/
Europe
The planets are lining up in Germany for an upcoming legalization of cannabis. Erwin Rueddel, member of the Bundestag (CDU) and chairman of his committee on health, thinks in particular possible a legal experiment of cannabis for adult use in #Germany “during the next legislative period”. The German commissioner in charge of the fight against drugs has also assured that she wants to relax the legislation on the possession of cannabis, for example by allowing the possession of less than 6 grams of cannabis throughout Germany.
Cookies, which will soon be legally distributed in Canada, is gaining another foothold in Europe thanks to a cultivation partnership with Flowr Corporation at their Portuguese site. European patients will therefore soon be able to access one of the most popular cannabis brands in the world.
Switzerland continues its process of facilitating access to medical cannabis. It is now the Federal Council which has validated the decision.
An Italian study finds that oral CBD sprays are associated with improvements in patients with refractory migraines.
The Dutch Ministry of Health has awarded a grant of € 1.4 million for research into the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in children with treatment-resistant epilepsy. Research will investigate whether medical cannabis reduces the frequency and / or severity of epileptic seizures in children.
British CBD brand Cannaray has launched a pretty ad campaign against a backdrop of revolution.
International
South Africa has unveiled its plan to legalize cannabis. The estimated turnover is around € 1.6 billion and could create up to 25,000 jobs while attracting foreign investment.
Tilray bought out part of MedMen’s debt, which could be converted into equity when the United States legalizes cannabis.
Buzzfeed launched its cannabis brand Goodful in partnership with California cannabis producer NUG. The site editor realized that part of his audience was more than interested in cannabis topics. Unfortunately for us, the company closed its French offices in 2018, so we avoided CBD Buzzfeed.
The U.S. CBD market is projected to reach $ 2.8 billion per year by 2028, according to projections by Grand View Research.
Seth Rogen has decided to end his partnership with Canopy Growth for the distribution of Houseplant products in Canada. While Houseplant drinks have become one of the best-selling products in Canada, the quality of its flowers has left consumers hungry for more than what is grown and smoked in the United States. Rogen, however, plans to return to Canada as soon as he finds a grower Canadian capable of ensuring a quality up to what is made in the US.
Still in Canada, legalization has not led more adolescents to use cannabis. The argument of “what example would we give to young people”, often rehashed in France by prominent alcohol users, therefore seems surprisingly wrong.
